Why Choose Waldorf?

Imagine a school that shares your values for nurturing your children. A school that allows them the time and space they need to learn in an unhurried, unstandardized environment. A school that challenges them to imagine new ideas, solve problems in new ways and see the world in a new light. A school that inspires them to trust themselves, develop their own gifts and reach beyond the expected. What you’ve imagined is Waldorf School at Moraine Farm — one of nearly 1,000 Waldorf schools in 60 countries worldwide.

Here on the North Shore of Massachusetts, families have many wonderful options for their children’s education. Yet, Waldorf School at Moraine Farm offers an approach that reflects what many parents are seeking for their children’s education.

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Facts about Waldorf Education

A new definition of academic rigor is emerging today. It has little to do with acquiring information. Access to information today is unprecedented; how can today’s young people make sense of it all? How will they find purpose and fulfillment in their lives? Academics, if they are to serve children today, have to lay the groundwork for answering those questions in adulthood.

Waldorf schools have a holistic view of education — that is, we recognize that people are not just their “heads”; they have “hearts” and “hands” as well. We work to bring these aspects of each child into harmony and balance.

We love music. From the youngest Parent & Child gathering, to our middle school classrooms, students play music regularly. Walk the halls of our school, and you’ll hear students and faculty singing, first graders playing recorder, our middle school ensemble tuning up.

Here you are unlikely to see a young child sitting at a desk for long stretches of time. Movement is more than a way to exercise the muscles or “blow off steam,” it’s an important part of how people learn. We make sure children move throughout their day: stomping, clapping, balancing, playing games, moving as they practice math facts.

Waldorf education has long recognized the need for children of all ages to have daily, unstructured outdoor play and pioneered the “Forest Kindergarten” model in the United States. Our students experience nature in all its wonder in daily outdoor classes and play. We know this builds imagination and problem solving from the earliest ages.

Waldorf schools draw families from all walks of life, including the technology and media worlds. Yet, while you might find eighth graders taking apart a computer to learn how it works, you’ll rarely find us using computers or other electronic media for classroom instruction.

Children love puddles. They love digging and stacking, piling and collecting, observing and wondering. Outdoor time in all weather is an important part of our education. Our youngest children start each day outdoors — in rain or shine — hiking, gardening, playing games, climbing trees, piling stones into a wall, creating mud dams, pulling potatoes on the Moraine Farm CSA.

Like all Waldorf schools across the globe, we are not part of any church, nor do we espouse any particular religious doctrine. Our mission is to educate children, regardless of their cultural or religious backgrounds. We believe that there is a spiritual dimension to the human being and to all of life. And we fully welcome the broad spectrum of traditions and interests represented in our community.